In an amazing feat of space Engineering, the Mars Science Labratory “Curiosity” successfully landed after spending more than eight months in space. The car-sized rover took over 7 years to build, and cost about $2 billion. Making this image, and similar ones the rover has beamed back from the Red Planet, some of the most expensive photos in history.

Some people may ask the question if spending such a large sum of money on a project like this is really worth it. Especially when we are all experiencing economic difficulty. That is a completely valid question to ask. What price should we put on exploration, discovery, and understanding? There certainly has to be limits. However, what you are seeing in the below image isn’t just a crooked landscape of an alien world. What you are seeing is the culmination of humanity pushing itself to the limits of our understanding. Every time we do this we grow. We become stronger. There is something new we learn about ourselves and the universe in which we live. What is the price tag of human curiosity? How much would you be willing to sell it for?